kate

kate, 10 hours ago to random

I get that this door hanger is meant to be playful, but some of these are downright creepy — I suspect most room service staff have had sleazy guys say some variant on “Care to join us?”

kate, 15 hours ago to random

I finally went to see the memorial to the patron saint of queer programmers, Alan Turing:

kate, 3 days ago to random

A stranger called me “stylish” today, which I feel vindicates my refusal to dress appropriately for the weather and ground conditions

kate, 7 days ago to random

Glen Sligachan, Skye:

kate, 14 days ago to random

British transphobia has now reached the stage of coercing young people into detransitioning using the threat of referrals to social services if they access treatment through private providers. The Good Law Project is crowdfunding for a possible legal challenge: https://goodlawproject.org/crowdfunder/nhs-cyp-guidance/

kate, 14 days ago to random

Today I’m updating https://grid.iamkate.com to use Elexon’s new API, as they’re switching off the current BMRS API at the end of the month. The new API is just as inconsistent as the old one, but in entirely new ways.

kate, 16 days ago (edited 16 days ago) to random

Bristol came so close to having the first Green majority on a upper-tier English council.

Edit: Here’s what the results imply for the Bristol Central constituency in the upcoming general election: https://iamkate.com/data/bristol-central/

kate, 18 days ago to random

If you’re designing a programming language, please consider allowing hyphens in identifiers. Hyphen-separated text (kebab-case) is more readable than camelCase, and doesn’t require use of the shift key like camelCase and snake_case. There’s no ambiguity with subtraction if you require spaces around binary operators (which every style guide I’ve ever used requires anyway).

rooster, 20 days ago to random

deleted_by_author

kate, 21 days ago to random

On 7th June 2020 anti-racism protestors tore down a statue of slave-trader Edward Colston and threw it into Bristol harbour. The statue that once looked down on the people of Bristol now lies, graffiti-covered and surrounded by placards from the protest, in the M Shed museum. I found the exhibition to be a moving reminder of that brief period when it seemed Britain might finally start to acknowledge and address the legacy of its history of racism.

A placard reading “Colston must fall”
Various placards, including one reading “BLM means gay + trans Black lives matter”
Various placards, including one reading “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”

kate, 1 month ago to random

The mnemonic I use to remember Markdown link syntax is that the square brackets look a bit like a button and then the round brackets mention the URL as a note afterwards:

button

kate, 1 month ago to random

Brits ask “A penny for your thoughts?” and Americans respond with “Just my two cents”. At current exchange rates ($1.00 = £0.80) this means Brits are receiving 1.6p of American thoughts for just 1p. In this paper we propose an alternative asset pricing model for the marketplace of ideas, considering—

kate, 1 month ago to random

Last night I discovered my christening candle in a box of childhood items my parents gave me. This morning the bathroom lightbulb died while I was having a shower. So now, for the second time in my life, I’m getting washed by the light of a christening candle.

kate, 1 month ago to random

I love it when @Clare makes garam masala — it looks so pretty in the pan

kate, 1 month ago to random

My wife and I went to a mermaid-painting watercolour workshop today. The other attendee, a retired woman, asked us “Are you two related, or just friends?”. Anyway, here’s my first attempt at painting since primary school 30 years ago:

kate, 1 month ago to random

I often see people here discussing the importance of forgiving our past selves for taking so long to realise who we really are. But forgiveness implies blame — that there’s something to forgive.

I believe gratitude is more powerful, and more cathartic, than forgiveness. I say to my past self:

Thank you for all you endured for so many years to keep me safe. Thank you for sacrificing yourself so that I could exist. I’ll make it worth it. I’ll make you proud.

kate, 1 month ago to random

We spend a lot of time asking ourselves “What do I want to do?”, but I think it’s vital to occasionally stop and ask instead “Who do I want to be?” and, once you have your answer, “How do I become that person?”

kate, 2 months ago to random

I wonder if the Highways Agency treats FIXME comments with any more urgency than the average software developer?

kate, 2 months ago to random

If you watch The Little Mermaid backwards it’s about a young woman who decides not to marry a wealthy but bland prince, gives him the silent treatment for a week, then swims out to sea where a friendly witch turns her into a mermaid so she can spend her days singing with sea creatures

rauschma, 2 months ago to random

Our lives would be much simpler if the hair (incl. beards) on our heads had a shorter maximal length.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/07/19/dear-science-why-does-the-hair-on-my-head-grow-longer-than-the-hair-on-my-body/

The only other animal that I know of that eventually gets into trouble if their hair isn’t cut is sheep and some dog breeds.